Hi Zuki, I think Chas is referring to the E-X50 or one of those new low-end Rolands that may or may not borrow elements of Yamaha's operating system. In any case, I'm not impressed and don't recommend buying one of these. The FP-E50 is a style piano and the direct successor to the earlier FP-50 and FP-80. It's the first keyboard with true Roland arranger DNA since the E-A7, but it's a stage piano with styles, not a fully-featured arranger.

I have an original E-50 released circa 2008, which I *think* is what you're asking about. This has the O.S. of the vaunted G-70 minus some important features such as drawbars, Vocal Harmony and an FC-7 input, but in a much lighter package. They didn't make many, you could never find them in stores, and they went out of production very quickly! I bought a demo model from George Kaye when they first came out. I've really enjoyed playing it and exploring the features; this board pretty much converted me to a Roland person. I don't play pianistically and I wanted something compact, so the 61-key E-50 was the right choice for me, although the keys are short and stiffly sprung.

I like the E-50's touch screen and the workflow for style creation and editing better than the BK-9's menus, so I've kept mine for this purpose (although the Rhythm Composer on the BK-9 is perfectly usable.) The E-50 was ultimately replaced by the BK-5 circa 2011-2012. The BK-5 is comparable to the E-50 in most respects. It's lighter and less bulky, but it lacks The E-50's touch screen, 16-track sequencer, and Cover tools.

Two limitations of the E-50 (if you can find one to buy!) First, the removable media is a PCMCIA card, which are themselves hard to find. When I bought my keyboard, I found a PCMCIA adapter that accepts Sony memory sticks and that's what I'm still using. External storage is essential IMO, so make sure you can source a solution before buying one. The second limitation is something that probably no one else cares about but me: With the help of MIDI Solutions' Relay and Footswitch Controller, I've managed to implement bass inversion as a MOMENTARY function. I.e., bass plays the lowest note whenever a footswitch is pressed and held, which makes it easier to turn on and off quickly during a song. This gimmick works great on the BKs, but the E-50 gets confused and sometimes "misses" open pulses from the Relay box. Either its processor is too slow, or the programmers built in a minimum-duration "window" that's too long for what I'm trying to do. Bottom line, songs with a few stray slash chords are easier to play on the BKs because they support my admittedly unorthodox approach, while the E-50 does not.

Obviously I think the E-50 and E-60 were good mid-line arrangers that compare favorably to contemporary rivals like the PSR-S700 or Korg PA500. If they had been more widely available in the late Oughts, Roland might still be in the arranger game today!